Art Project Bins

My students always love it when they get to color in class. lol! Activities that involve students in drawing, coloring, cutting along with finding textual evidence, reading closely, and working in groups hit a lot of different learning styles along with giving students a break from normal classroom routine.

I try to have an activity of this type in each of my literature units. When I do, it's nice if there is some type of organization to distributing materials. Otherwise...well, madness springs to mind.

I put together ART PROJECT BINS for my students for just such occasions. Students are put into small groups and put their desks in a circle. Even if they're working individually, they will share the ART PROJECT BIN.

Each bin is labeled with a number and filled with the following: color pencils, crayons, color markers, several black expo markers, a couple of pairs of scissors, a couple of rulers, small plastic pencil sharpeners, and glue sticks.

Students are responsible for making sure that lids on markers are put back on and that all items are returned to the bin.

This idea was stolen from a kindergarten teacher/friend of mine. lol! I'm sure lots of others do something similar. I like to use the plastic shoe boxes for bins that you can get from Dollar Tree. I usually put together eight of them, but you should judge based on your largest class size. Since I like my groups to ideally be 3 and not more than 4 students, I calculate based on that.